Micro messages. The next big thing?

As new media is expanding rapidly and pushing for bigger and better content there's an interesting thing happening...a few new services are focused on micro messages.

Twitter, for instance, is a text only log in which you have 140 characters available per "post" and you can submit them through the Twitter interface, your instant message service, or text message. You can check out my Twitter page to see what I mean.

At the same time, a new mini blog tool has emerged called Tumblr. Tumblr is essentially stripped down blog service. There's no comments available and the tone lends itself to stream of consciousness more than anything else. It does allow images, embedded video, and a long post (if you would want to do that here) unlike Twitter. See mine here.

After playing around with both of these for a while tonight I think there's something really compelling here. My first thought was that these services will be niche successes...meaning they're not the kinds of things a non blogger or those uninitiated into the world of social networking will likely dive into. Then I realized this "niche" grew by at least 35 million blogs and well over 100 million social network registrants last year...so if I'm Twitter or Tumblr, that's a nice fat niche to tap into. Whatever the case both of these are a perfect outlet for someone who feels like they're somewhere beyond the white belt at the web 2.0 dojo. They play together nicely too. Tumblr will pull in your Twitter RSS feed for the perfect melding of the two.

I'm personally excited about this because I've felt like I needed an outlet for things that don't really fit the general topic of this blog. Also, the very nature of both of these means I can't really spend much time on it so it forces me to say what I want and move on with the day. I'm looking forward to twitting and tumbling.